Now that they've all been arrested and are facing serious jail time, the men accused of orchestrating an acid attack on the director of the Bolshoi Ballet are all pointing the fingers at each other. All three men involved in the assault appeared in a Moscow courtroom today to share their side of the story and while all admit to taking part, the "recollection" of events is much different.

Dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko confessed to setting up the violent hit on his artistic director, Sergei Filin, but says that he never agreed that the attacker should throw acid in his face. Dmitrichenko said he was "in shock" when he heard later that Filin had been burned and partially blinded by acid, because his accomplice, Yury Zarutsky, had only agreed to hit the victim in the head.

For his part, Zarutsky said he's just a scapegoat, then shouted obscenities and flipped off reporters in the courtroom. A third man, Andrei Lipatov, confessed to being Zarutsky's getaway driver. Police say Dmitrichenko paid the two men $1,600 to carry out the attack. All three were denied bail after being arrested on Tuesday. Detectives tracked them down by simply checking for all mobile phone calls made in the area of the crime scene during the time of the attack.

Obviously, both men are looking to protect their own necks have their dastardly deed backfired, but it's pretty hard to imagine that "beat this guy up" could be misinterpreted as "buy acid and throw it in his face." Dmitrichenko who is known for playing the villain on stage, allegedly set up the hit as revenge for Filin stifiling the career of his girlfriend and other dancers in the company.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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